


Not on Track

by HappyHour



Category: Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Menstruation cycle, Mildly Dubious Consent, Other, Pregnancy Scares, Teen Pregnancy, Teenage Drama, kinda short chapters, not tagging underage because it's more about young adults, reference to abortions, reference to miscarriage, the emotional maturity of teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:48:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 10,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22148176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HappyHour/pseuds/HappyHour
Summary: Strongarm likes to keep everything in order, and cover all angles. She is not the person to be suddenly thrust into a doubt about her own body and having much larger responsibility looming on her ready to pounce on her. As her cycle gets delayed, she handles it about as well as any young adult away from a proper support network or healthcare can handle it.Note: This fic has a menstruation cycle useage, minus the whole bleeding thing or 4-10 days of discomfort.
Relationships: Sideswipe/Strongarm
Comments: 13
Kudos: 41





	1. 5 days until flush, 14 days until fertile

Strongarm was far from sure if she and Sideswipe had fooled Bumblebee or not. Drift would not have been fooled, but thankfully he was on patrol. They had some free time to burn today, and they had decided to do something for the first time. Or at least the first time with each other.

Sideswipe had found that small clearing in the forest and now the two of them were there. It was a cumulation of time and frustration that brought them together, now, for this.

Sideswipe was, Strongarm had to admit, hot. Not hitting all her buttons, for instance he was a bit too skinny, but he was one of those that she knew she wouldn’t be able to attain back on Cybertron. Flashy and speedy.

And thankfully, he was neither at the moment. She was laying down, her hands exploring his chest and arms while he was above her, slightly raised on his knees to hover above her as he, the ruffian he was, had found out that she was very sensitive right where her chest and waist met.

“Been with my frametype before?” Strongarm huffed as she tried to find anything to latch into, anything that would make him shiver and tremble.

“Just a natural talent of mine.” Sideswipe smirked.

“Or perhaps rigorous study.” Strongarm said as she went for the headlights, finally eliciting a real response from Sideswipe.

“You should know that I’m not the studious -” Sideswipe stopped mid-sentence, looking ahead. “Hey!” He lowered himself to her. “Jokes aside, do you want to do this? Because more of your _implying_ is going to turn me off.”

Strongarm hesitated for a second, realizing she had stepped out of line. And she knew, and Sideswipe did as well, that if things went sour, they could go atomic. There weren’t many friendly Cybertronians on this planet, and keeping the team cohesion was important.

And Strongarm did want this. She always got a bit worked up this time of her natural cycle, so when Sideswipe had responded to her flirting, she had pounced on it. So she nodded.

“Yes.” She also said out loud.

“I want to spike.” Sideswipe said. “I mean, I can take it like any other, but you might -”

“It’s okay.” Strongarm said. “I’m fine with it. Anything else you want me to avoid? Because I do like having my spike out during any kind of interfacing, and I’ve had -”

“No, feel free!” Sideswipe said quickly. He raised himself up so he was kneeling between Strongarm’s spread legs. Strongarm heaved herself up on her elbows and looked. Sideswipe had his spike already out. Given it looked a bit floppy she surmised he had just opened his spike cover. And that she hadn’t felt any ghost boners during their little tactile session.

So she slowly opened up her own array. First her valve cover to show Sideswipe that she was serious about taking it rather than giving it. Sideswipe didn’t wait for a que from her and leaned over, his fingers readily pushing through her valve folds into the already prepared and well lubricated valve.

Oh yeah, Strongarm really needed that. It had been a while since she had been with someone else, and feeling someone else’s fingers up her valve was a godsend. Well, a spike was always better but she hadn't felt this in a long time. She moaned as the fingers curled up in her valve, then extended again and rubbed at some particular spot they reached in her valve.

"You're so warm." Sideswipe said. He rested his head on her chest as he started thrusting his fingers in and out. And then his other hand wrapped its fingers around her spike, giving it a soft squeeze.

Strongarm went hard. She thrust her hips shapely, trying to get that hand to move on her spike. But when her thrusting gave her more pleasure as Sideswipe's fingers were going in and out of her valve, she changed the thrusting a bit to get her valve simulated rather than her spike.

"Ready?" Sideswipe asked, as if he had managed to read her mind. Maybe he was just a natural. Strongarm nodded and Sideswipe slowly withdrew his hands. He scooted closer to her groin, holding his own spike and carefully lined it up against her valve. She felt the blunt head of the spike up against her valve folds. Thicker in girth than the fingers, it pushed the folds inwards slightly and Strongarm hissed a bit at the minor sting. Sideswipe just grinned, apparently thinking his spike was on the larger side compared to her other berthmates. But then the head pushed in fully, and Sideswipe moaned.

Strongarm leaned a bit further to see. She saw how not half of Sideswipe's spike was inside her. Sideswipe looked at her, then pushed himself in fully. She felt him sliding in, moaning at the new sensation and the feeling of her valve being filled up by a spike for the first time in forever.

They started to move with each other. Strongarm pushed herself up to Sideswipe as he thrust into her. Neither were really paying attention to the other, only relishing in the feeling of good frag that they hadn't had in ages. Strongarm loved the feeling of being filled, and to make it even better she held her spike, gripping it tight and stroked it fast, venting heavily with the physical exertion. It felt silly to feel the mild strain given that she had not been slacking off in her workouts, but she chalked it up to her workouts not resembling interfacing.

Sideswipe thrust in her fast, the quick in and out pace having him huff in exertion as well, his arms trembling as he put weight on them, not wanting to lie directly on top of Strongarm. He wasn't slowing down at all, or stopping, so Strongarm didn't get much time to focus. She just let herself drown In the sensations she was feeling, having missed it dearly. Tired of stroking her spike, she slid her hand lower, spreading her fingers so that she could feel that spike brush against them as Sideswipe thrust in and out of her. She felt like she was having her fingers wide apart, which added onto her own thoughts that Sideswipe was probably more hung than she had thought.

But it was when she withdrew her fingers and rubbed them against her outer nose that she tensed up, feeling that sensation of an impending overload, the chill in her legs as her body tensed up in anticipation. When she self serviced, she liked to pause at this moment so she didn't go over the precipice, letting her overload build up to satisfying levels.

But Sideswipe didn't slow down. Strongarm quickly withdrew her hands from her interface array, placing them palms flat down on the ground on either side of her. She wasn't in control, she couldn't stop the buildup as Sideswipe thrust in and out of her. Strongarm's venting became more and more desperate as she knew there was nothing she could do to stop him. And she didn't want him to stop.

The overload crashed into her like a buffaloid. She cried out as she drowned in the sensation, her hips twitching and drawing her legs up as she tried to resist it. She always felt better fighting against it rather than going with the flow.

Then it passed. She let herself flop onto her back. Sideswipe just smiled as he continued pushing in and out of her, having not overloaded yet. Strongarm felt a small twinge of pain as he was over stimulating her valve, but she knew it would either fade soon or he overloaded first.

After a short while, Strongarm noticed a change in Sideswipe's venting, the telltale sign of an overload. Sideswipe only needed a couple of more pushes and then he groaned. He withdrew his spike out of her valve and it spewed trans fluid onto her waist with each throb it made. He then flopped down beside her, getting his own venting to regular level.

"Not bad." Strongarm said, realizing too late she had messed up. She looked over at Sideswipe, who was frowning at her. "I mean, it was good! I'm not good with words, at least, those that don't come out of a book."

Sideswipe just looked at her with the same frown for couple of seconds, then it softened and he turned his head up to the sky. "Yes, I get you." He said. "No hard feelings. You felt pretty good as well."

Strongarm just hummed an affirmative, not wanting to say anything out loud. They just laid there together, no more words exchanged until they felt confident enough to go to the nearest stream to clean up before they went back to the scrap yard.


	2. +2 days overdue, 7 days until fertile

Strongarm huffed in displeasure as she reinserted the diva cup. Nothing. She didn’t like it when the gestation tank discharge flowed into her actual valve where it could stay behind the covers until the next shower or cleaning. It was more comfortable to know when it was coming and get the discharge out as quickly as possible. However she was now two days overdue for the flush.

It wasn’t the first time she was that late. It was in fact more of a norm. She had even had it skipping when she was in the hardest physical part of law enforcement academy. Maybe staying on earth was making her own body think that it was serious time.

But she didn’t want to ask Bumblebee about it. Or anyone else. It had mostly to do with what she had done a week earlier. If Sideswipe were to hear about it, he would probably start teasing her, how he knocked her up on the first try. She didn’t need those thoughts plaguing her. All she had to do was to keep track of the days, see if anything changed.

Strongarm stood up from the little alcove she had been in, a small private space she had found in the scrapyard, and it didn’t look like anyone else was using it, not even Denny Clay. She dusted herself off and walked away. She had first turned to the command center, then changed her mind. She wasn’t entirely done with this thing. She went to one of the higher points of the scrapyard, a sturdy shelving unit with a billboard on top of it. This spot was not her own, but the team’s, and everyone regarded it as mostly quiet spot for anyone to take advantage of while wanting a good view of the surroundings. Strongarm approached, noticing no one perched up there, so she started to climb. It didn’t even strain her as she got to the top and sat down, looking at the distant Crown City. She missed Cybertron, and that view was the closest thing resembling it.

Strongarm checked her wrist computer. It wasn’t much that she had stored on it before coming to Earth, but she did have one program running. Her cycle tracking program. And the data was stored locally and not on some cybernet servers that were now lightyears away.

So she checked the history of her cycles. She could do something else, but right now she knew that she would most likely feel better after finding the reason for why it would be late. The program itself was bad at seeing large trends in the cycle length, but Strongarm could find one.

But as she looked over the logs, she noticed that the program was predicting long cycles compared to the older average. That was normal, the cycle length fluctuated and skewed the actual average. But when it started predicting longer cycles, Strongarm started sooner, not later.

And Strongarm had gotten an okay overload few days before she was scheduled to start. That was often followed by an early flush, not delay it like it was now.

Strongarm checked her fertility period. She had known that she wasn’t fertile a week ago, but she needed to check it, just to make sure.

And there it was. She was still a ways off from actually taking a risk if interfacing, much less a week ago. And the fertility period calculation already factored in the time the foreign transfluid would be charged enough to spark gestation, putting aside a whole week where interfacing would risk getting sparked up, with two days in the middle marking the highest risk of getting sparked up. And even then it didn't even count as she had gotten a chemical insert a couple of years ago, and those were supposed to be really reliable.

Was this really worth getting hung up on? Strongarm closed the program and climbed down from the vantage point. No one else had come up for a chat. Bumblebee did it from time to time when he knew that Strongarm needed it. And then it was when something had happened during patrol, or when Sideswipe had gotten on her nerves. He came when there was some outside factor bothering her. While Bumblebee was a pretty great warrior and scout, he wasn’t a mindreader, and wouldn’t know when Strongarm was having a delayed gestation tank flush.

It was annoying when the body wasn't behaving perfectly, but that was one of the few things that Strongarm could tolerate. She had once tried to rule her body perfectly, and that had almost destroyed her. She was not about to repeat that mistake.

She recalled how it had been in the first days of the academy. The stress on both her body and mind had been nearing breaking point, and she had turned to unhealthy, but not illegal, coping methods. It had nearly made her drop out until Lieutenant Dropforge had caught on what was going on. He had spoken with her few times about her trouble, but it wasn't until his fourth attempt that he found something that resonated with her.

_"Being part of law enforcement is to provide structure to society. We make sure that structure is upheld and those that deviate from it, and threaten society or individuals, will not repeat that mistake._

_"However, it does not mean everything needs a rigid structure. Chaos does exist, but it's not a bad thing. There are times where you can't predict what is going to happen tomorrow, or next week, or even next year. And that isn't a bad thing. Some systems need the strict structure that you are seeking after, but there are others that you won't be able to control. There is always a need for those structures to deviate from the norm. They can bend, but they will bend back to normal if it is allowed to. Interfering can cause the opposite reaction to what is desired, or to make it snap back into place rather than gradually."_

Strongarm took that idea and expanded on it as she sought relief from the pressure she had imposed upon herself. Structured system versus living systems, both were equally valid, though Strongarm had strong preference for the former. And her body was one of those living systems, and because of that, it could become unpredictable at times, just like now. Which meant that Strongarm just had to relax and let it bend back into place rather than snap back, or worse, break. It had been a long time ago that she was good with the idea that she couldn't control her body perfectly, and she just needed to remind herself of that now.


	3. +5 overdue, 4 days until fertile

"Scrap." Strongarm muttered to herself as she stored the diva cup away. It became painful to keep it up there for days, and given that the gestational tank flush hadn't happened yet, she didn't want to keep it up in there any longer, making her itch and ache where she couldn't easily scratch.

She had stayed on Earth for several cycles, so it wasn't a change in the environment. There had been no stressor factor which could delay her cycle, not was there any other change that could explain what was happening. No change in energon source, no major meteorological event, no major injury. Nothing.

And yet the cycle was late, five days late. For Strongarm, that was far too late for comfort. She had found a private moment for herself two days ago, trying to jumpstart the flush with a good overload and thorough shower, but it was for naught. Either she could try again, or give up on waiting.

This wasn’t the first time she was that late, but she was sure she could count on one hand how often it had happened in her life. There was also the problem of having hooked up with Sideswipe nearly two weeks ago, which made this even more upsetting. She did have a chemical protection insert, buried beneath her plating to make sure that fertilization could not occur. But there was the inherent discomfort of having no secondary protection like it was often recommended. She had interfaced plenty of times before with just the insert and nothing had happened.

And her cycle had not been late back then.

Strongarm headed back to the command center. Today was a day off for everyone, no patrols, no training, no nothing. Just feeling free to do whatever. Strongarm was pretty sure it was because Bumblebee's favourite earth band was having some full day event. He had tried to everyone else to join him, but only Denny Clay accepted the offer.

Strongarm spotted Sideswipe, laying on top of the command centre, listening to something on his personal media player. With show his leg was bouncing rhythmically, it was clear he was listening to some music. Looking around, she did not spot Drift or his minicons, and she could hear Grimlock in the distance. So there were just the two of them here.

Of course Sideswipe had to pick a spot that Strongarm couldn't easily go to. She sighed and set on climbing up the cliff face until she could set herself down on the roof of the Alchemor bridge. And it was clear that she handy been silent about her arrival, as Sideswipe was already looking at her expectantly, waiting for her to explain why she went through the trouble of getting over to him.

"Hey Sideswipe." Strongarm simply greeted, slowly walking towards him and then taking a seat next to him.

"Hey yourself." Sideswipe answered. "So what brings you here? The view or something else?" He flexed slightly and smirked, believing that the _something else_ was him. Which was true in a way.

"I just -" Strongarm started but then sighed. "I have a problem, it might involve you."

"Didn't you say the other day that I'm involved in all the problems you're having?" Sideswipe stretched and laid down on the hard metal roof.

Strongarm turned her gaze away for a moment, then sat down next to Sideswipe.

"My cycle is late." Strongarm said low.

Sideswipe didn't answer for a moment, then raised himself up to sitting position, looking at Strongarm. There wasn't a smile on his face, just a thin lined mouth and worried eyes.

"By how much?" Sideswipe asked. A more insightful question than Strongarm expected.

Strongarm brought up her wrist and checked the program again, as if it would have changed already. Sideswipe didn't look at it, he was just looking at her.

"Five days." Strongarm answered.

"Eh, nothing to worry about." Sideswipe said.

"I **know** it is nothing to worry about." Strongarm spat out as Sideswipe was saying the same thing she had spent a lot of time trying to convince herself. "I know that delays are normal. I know that -"

"Yes, I understand." Sideswipe quickly cut in. "It's still kind of scary, especially as we fragged not long ago. Sometimes the body behaves unpredictably, especially after a real frag."

"How would you know? You don't seem to be the person who would know about this kind of stuff." Strongarm asked, wondering if Sideswipe was just making things up to get her to calm down or if he actually knew a thing or two.

"I just do, alright?" Sideswipe clearly wasn't willing to truthfully answer. "There is also a significant chance that it won't carry through, we are on an alien planet, fertility rates plummet on those."

"Yeah, and according to this I wouldn't be fertile anyway at that point in the cycle." Strongarm looked at the program again, making sure that what she had read a hundred times already had not changed.

"You know when you're going to risk it if you get fragged?" Sideswipe asked. "Gotten it measured out? Gone to a clinic and all that?"

"No," Strongarm closed the program again. "It's the program, it keeps track of my cycles so it can predict when the next flush might happen. It just also tracks fertility chance."

"If it isn't actually checking your levels, then it's simply guessing." Sideswipe said. "The better method to determine when you might be risking it is to figure out when in your cycle you're the horniest. Those usually go hand in hand."

"I'm -" Strongarm trailed off as her mind caught onto the answer before she did, and the ramifications that came with that. "Few days before my flush. But it can't be right, because then there is a bigger chance of miscarriage, if flush immediately follows. And how do you even know these things anyway?"

Sideswipe sighed. He was silent for a moment as he looked to the side, intentionally not looking at Strongarm. "Me and my brother were planned, fertility treatment and all. It's something they didn't shut up about, especially when I turned out to be such a disappointment." Sideswipe said.

Strongarm looked at Sideswipe, silent as she observed him. He didn't move, nor did he look back at her.

"You haven't talked about your family before." Strongarm said low.

"I haven't spoken to them in years." Sideswipe said. "Why would I talk about them?"

"It's just that -" Strongarm hesitated as she hadn't thought clearly what to say. "While I'm from the well, but from what I know about families, they are supposed to be a big part in your life."

"Tell them that." Sideswipe shrugged. "I ran away while I was still supposed to be their charge. They never tried to stop me or to find me. They probably threw a party when I was gone."

"It can't be that bad." Strongarm said.

"I was such a pain in the aft for them. I broke so much stuff, I always made them mad. Leaving was probably the only good thing I did for them." Sideswipe said, then he finally turned to Strongarm. "As for your late cycle, it's just a late cycle. In any case, it's still way too early to tell."

"I know." Strongarm nodded. "I guess I just needed to have someone tell me that." She stood up. "Thank you." She said as she walked away, hearing a loud "You're welcome!" from Sideswipe. She did not look back.


	4. +8 overdue, 1 days until fertile

The human internet was lacking. Strongarm was just mindlessly browsing the legal codes that applied to the country, state and county they were in, and the municipal law of the nearby Crown City. She knew that she couldn’t search for what she was looking for.

Strongarm scratched at a spot on her upper arm, very aware of a small implant that she had gotten inserted in there a few years ago. The problem was that she didn’t remember the exact date, or even the year. Those implants lasted for years, were reliable, and Strongarm had set a reminder to remind her to make another appointment for a replacement.

The problem was that said reminder was in the Cybertronian datacloud. It wasn’t accessible from Earth. And her medical records were also in the same datacloud, so that was also far out of reach for her.

Strongarm closed the link she had to the human internet and sighed, just looking at the scrappile that was in front of her before she opened up her citation logs. It was hopeless. She had gotten the insert while she had been in the academy, all she recalled were tests and teachers, and there was no information on those stored on her personal device.

But she had to at least try. Maybe there was some sort of festival that happened around that time, maybe some anniversary she couldn’t recall at the moment. She needed something, anything, to help her remember.

Strongarm read citation after citation, going back in time. She couldn’t even remember half of them, they had been so generic. She did recall the speeding Wrecker, she did recall the overly flashy sports car that had hit on her in a terrible attempt to dodge the ticket. 

She hadn’t taken her up on that offer.

Strongarm shuddered as she closed the citation log as if she had been looking at pornography and Bumblebee had just walked in. She just sat down, knees bent as close to her body as possible as her hands twinned at the back of her head.

She hadn’t accepted the offer of that racecar, but she had allowed Sideswipe to possibly spark her up.

No. It was still too early to tell. And if Sideswipe were right about them having fragged when she was fertile, her regular cycle would make her more predisposed to have a silent miscarriage.

But that would happen during her regular flush. Which had not happened. She had just reached the week mark on that, and yesterday the tracking program had dutifully asked her if she had forgotten to log her flush.

It had been hard to admit it to herself, and somehow it was harder to press the “No” button on the program.

Strongarm tilted her head level, looking ahead at the unchanging junk. What was it that she did know? Sideswipe had been correct, fertility rate plummeted when they were somewhere else than Cybertron. While there was surprisingly lacking information about the phenomenon in human literature, Cybertronians were prone to miscarry in stressful situations or even in not ideal situations. Denny had once talked about gardening as a hobby, but very few plants could actually sprout in this soil in the junkyard. Cybertronians were a bit close to that.

So, that was a point in her favor. She then thought about that the logical deduction that if one was fertile just before a flush they would also be predisposed to miscarriage. But that was just a logical deduction, she didn’t actually know that, nor was she able to look up any information on it, it just sounded correct. But she could be wrong, that the body would change the conditions once sparked.

A point against her. Then there was the time when Cybertronians were around. The Predacons, Team Prime, The Decepticons. The Predacons had died out, even though they were of sufficient numbers to have a viable population that would last quite a bit before the inbreeding coefficient would kick in. Team Prime had been in pretty dire straits themselves, but the Decepticons had no records of a earthborn population, but that could be because they favored the spark extraction of the newly sparked ones to put into constructed cold frames. Something very illegal before, during and after the war, but it hadn’t stopped them. And the extraction happened very early in the carrying cycle, the natural causes miscarriages wouldn’t happen until later in the carrying cycle.

A point in her favor.

Strongarm realized how horrendous it sounded. She was weighing herself against a possible newspark. And she was putting herself ahead of it if she was indeed sparked up. She was trying to calculate the odds, and hoping that she wasn’t sparked. She felt disgusted with herself, how horrible and selfish she was. A spark was a spark, and if she were carrying a spark, then it was equal to hers.

But only if she carried it to term. But there were those who regarded unborn sparks as true equals. Sparks harvested in the fields were carefully nurtured to maturation, getting even more hands-on care than those sparks carried in sparked up mechs. Strongarm was one of those who came from the ground, and she was ready to throw away the possibility, wishing it away and wishing it had never happened in the first place.

Eight days over. She was just eight days overdue for the flush. It was nothing. Anything could happen in the next couple of weeks, and she had been late before, even later than this. Maybe it just took a while for the body to realize it should be panicking, being on an alien world and reserve all energy that it could muster. No one got sparked up in those conditions, and sometimes the flushes halted or just stopped altogether as the body was frantically trying to conserve energy and nutrients.

Strongarm knew she could also start doing a very intense physical routine, but it felt like she was then really trying to force a miscarriage, and that sort of thing could have consequences for herself as well, injure her in some way, or make her weaker or unprepared in case of a Decepticon attack. Steeljaw was still at large with his pack, and while the exercises the Bee Team went through was enough to make Sideswipe complain, it kept them in good physical condition while also ready to make the extra effort when things were really going south. And that had happened a couple of times, harder fights, surprises, desperate situations. If she would put herself through a heavy regiment, she would feel like crap if she had to push herself even harder. And the only situations that would push her hard were the ones that were very close if not being life-or-death situations.

Strongarm relaxed and stood up. She checked her computer and opened the tracking program. She was being paranoid. She was only eight days overdue, and in fact she was about to hit her fertile period. She just needed to not get fragged by Sideswipe or anyone in fact, and she would be out of the woodworks.


	5. +12 days overdue, most fertile today

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note the new tag on the fic, added for this chapter. Mildly Dubious Consent in the form of not asking directly.

Each day that ticked by was an increment on the counter on her computer that begged to be reset. Strongarm knew that she shouldn’t be worrying. It was still within the longest time she had gone without a flush. She hadn’t even had a frag when that happened, having gone without for a couple of months already.

The only reason for why this was getting to her was because she and Sideswipe had fragged. Even the main bulk of transfluid had ended up being splattered on top of her, not inside of her. She knew that the pullout method wasn’t foolproof, but it still reduced the chance of getting sparked up.

Today was a patrol day. And she ended up doing a new route with Sideswipe. They had been driving for what seemed like hours, but she knew that it wasn’t true. She had her clock to tell her it had been less than an hour already. With her just waiting for each day to pass, waiting for her body to do the expected thing, the time seemingly slowed down to black hole proportions.

Few seconds before they would report in, Sideswipe’s voice suddenly cut into the silence.

“Sideswipe and Strongarm here, still nothing new to report.” Sideswipe said.

Strongarm didn’t add anything to it. Sideswipe was correct. The reply back took a bit of time, but when Bumblebee answered it was just in an affirmative. Maybe he had a question but decided not to ask. Strongarm almost asked him, but she stopped herself. She could ask him once they got back. And she had a better question for Sideswipe.

“Okay, what was that?” Strongarm asked.

“What was what?” Sideswipe shot back, slowing down so he would drive besides her, something not really advised as the road had only one lane for each direction.

“You reporting in before Bumblebee could.” Strongarm said. “And just a few seconds before the half an hour between reports was up. You were tracking the time.”

“And so were you.” Sideswipe said dismissively. “Look, you’ve been avoiding saying anything this whole patrol. I know that you’re all duty first, that this is a new route for us, but you’re taking it too far.”

“Maybe I didn’t -” Strongarm stopped herself. She wanted to say that she didn’t want to hear Sideswipe. But that wasn’t true. Sideswipe was the only one that she had spoken to about her late cycle. And as hard as it was to admit to herself, she was afraid. She didn’t want to be alone in this. Bumblebee would try to figure out how to do a test to make sure if she was carrying or not. Drift would just look at her disapprovingly, Grimlock or Fixit would just end up telling everyone else, and she doubted that Denny and Russel would even understand what was going on to begin with.

Sideswipe was the only one left, and as he also shared some responsibility in this, he also wanted to keep it on the lowdown. Well, as far as Strongarm figured.

“Yo, Cybertron to Strong- Crap, I mean Earth to Strongarm!” Sideswipe cut into her inner monologue.

“Sorry, just enjoying the silence.” Strongarm said.

Sideswipe did a wide swerve and went in front of her. Then he slowed down, forcing her to slow down as well.

“Sideswipe, what -”

“Oh look, I think I see tracks here, might be a Decepticon.” Sideswipe cut in and drove off the road. Strongarm looked at the ground, and aside from the tyre tracks from Sideswipe’s carelessness, she didn’t see anything. She sighed, then followed. It wasn’t long until she came to him transforming in a small clearing, looking at her as she slowed down to a halt and then transformed in turn.

“Okay Sideswipe, there were no tracks.” Strongarm said.

“Well duh, I just wanted you here, in private.” Sideswipe sat down. “Something is clearly bothering you.”

Strongarm hesitated, then sat down. She didn’t speak up, and thankfully Sideswipe didn’t pry. She didn’t want to look at him, afraid to see scorn or disappointment in his face. She just looked down at the ground beneath her.

“Still hasn’t come?” Sideswipe asked, clearly impatient. But there was no malice in his voice. She looked up at him, seeing worry. If that worry was for her, she didn’t know. He was probably worried about ending up responsible for a sparkling. He was pretty much a sparkling himself, or at least behaved like one.

“No.” Strongarm said low. “It’s still late.”

“How long is it now? Two weeks?” Sideswipe asked.

“Not quite.” Strongarm said and turned on her wrist computer even though she already knew how late she was. “Twelve days.” She said, hoping that Sideswipe thought she had to look it up. And he didn’t look like he had caught her doing something embarrassing, he actually looked like he cared about her, about what she had to say.

“Must be scary.” Sideswipe said. “But we do know that the chances you’re actually sparked up are slim to none.” He said. Strongarm knew that he was trying to reassure her, but somehow it just fell flat. It didn’t feel sincere. She closed the interface and let her arm hang to her side with her offhand wrapped around her knees.

“Sideswipe, have you ever thought about having sparklings?” Strongarm asked.

“No.” Sideswipe said. “Except yes, I mean, it’s -” Sideswipe groaned. “What I know is that I don’t want sparklings.”

“You’re pretty young, and, well, I’m pretty young, and I never thought about having some _now_ , but in the future, maybe -”

“Still no.” Sideswipe cut her off before she could get to the point. “I would be a terrible caretaker. I was a disappointing sparkling, let my parents down, so I would probably end up doing some damage to whatever unfortunate sparkling that would be saddled onto me.”

“Oh.” Strongarm barely managed to get out of herself, turning her head away from Sideswipe. She didn’t even know what to expect from him. The reason for why he was even on Earth with her and Bumblebee was because he had been breaking the law and they were about to bring him in before Bumblebee had a vision of Optimus Prime telling him to go to Earth. Sideswipe had been an unexpected extra load. Sure he had proven his worth couple of times already, but it was hard for Strongarm to think of him something else than the “other” that had accidentally tagged along.

“I’m not putting this into the right words.” Sideswipe said. “Look, it’s still a very small chance that you’re actually carrying. And since we’re on an alien planet it would have been a good chance you didn’t even notice a miscarriage if you weren’t such a time table freak to know to the day when your flush happens.”

“Not helping.” Strongarm muttered. She didn’t want to hear any insults at the moment, she knew that she had already screwed up big time.

"Like I said, I'm not putting this in the right words." Sideswipe said. "Please, I probably know more about this than you do, and -"

"You know more than me?" Strongarm spat out. "Probably because you're a punk, done this before, think you've more experience fragging than I do."

"No Strongarm." Sideswipe stood up, and Strongarm was quick to get on her feet as well. "I told you already, I know more because -"

Strongarm didn't want to listen to him anymore. So she had pushed him down, hard. He hadn't expected that shove and he landed hard on his back. She quickly knelt down to him to discourage him from sitting up.

"If you think I'm some sort of prude and you took my virginity or something, you are wrong." Strongarm put one arm across his chest, pressing down as her other hand found its target, between the legs, and brushed against the upper part of the interface covers. "Let me show you that I know more than you."

It took Sideswipe too long to answer, so Strongarm decided to make her move. She removed her arm off his chest as she moved down his body, insistent touching the spike cover as her head came ever closer. She had been told she was good at this, and she had also figured out how to do this quickly. Which was something to keep in mind as she didn't keep track on when Bumblebee expected the next report. A small mistake on her part.

Without having to insist, the spike cover spiraled open and Strongarm didn’t hesitate as she took the spike into her mouth. She caressed it with her tongue as it pressurized, and she could hear Sideswipe making some muffled noises. She found herself not really caring, the only thing she was focused on was to prove him wrong. She drew her arms closer to herself, and Sideswipe sat up. It barely jostled Strongarm, who followed with the movement, licking up the shaft as she avoided having the spike jabbed into her throat. The lick elicited a sharp noise from Sideswipe.

Now in a better position, Strongarm moved so that she was between his legs, her arms holding around his thighs for balance as she continued sucking. Sideswipe twitched his legs but Strongarm kept them from moving too much. When she dove down, ready to have the whole spike down her intake, Sideswipe took a sharp breath. She then sucked hard as she lifted her head, making him whimper in pleasure. And to top off that maneuver she licked up the shaft, ending with trailing her tongue on the spike’s head.

She only needed to do the routine a few more times before Sideswipe shifted again, his legs tensing up and he sat up straighter. He shook minutely and Strongarm knew what was to follow and she didn’t stop. She didn’t want Bumblebee to comm in while she had Sideswipe’s spike deep in her intake. Strongarm just engulfed the spike in her mouth, drawing her head up until it was just the head that was behind her lips. She licked at it as her right hand took the shaft of the spike and squeezed.

It took just couple of tries, and then Sideswipe shouted. Strongarm felt the warm transfluid splashing into her, coating her mouth and tongue. When it stopped moving, Strongarm slowly raised her head, releasing the spike. Her right hand slackened and moved to Sideswipe’s waist.

What the frag had she even been doing? Strongarm was hit with the realization that she had gone too far, and Sideswipe had genuinely been trying, and failing, to help her.

“Eww, gross.” Sideswipe said with disgust. Strongarm snapped out of it, seeing that she had been allowing transfluid to flow out of her mouth and onto the limp spike. Before she could stop herself, she did a sharp intake and the transfluid went down her throat by the force. She turned to the side quickly, away from Sideswipe, as she coughed, trying to get the transfluid out of her. It was a hard coughing fit, quickly followed by dry heaving, making the small amount of transfluid that had stayed in her mouth splatter on the ground.

“Strongarm, are you -”

“Don’t touch me!” Strongarm felt Sideswipe’s hand on her back as if it was burning her. She quickly smacked it away without even thinking. “I’m gross, as you said.” She didn’t look at him, and thankfully he was not trying to get in her face. Both of them just stood there, Strongarm trying to get her mind in order, and Sideswipe doing whatever he was doing.

“Let’s just continue the patrol.” Strongarm then said, walking back towards the road. She never looked back, but the footsteps following her, followed by the familiar sound of the racer’s engine, reminded her of the mistake she had made. Mistakes. Not just the one today, but the one nearly two weeks ago as well.


	6. +15 days overdue, day 8 of fertile period

Strongarm was walking slowly through the forest. The last couple of days had been hard on Strongarm. Bumblebee had noticed right off the bat that something had happened between her and Sideswipe in their last patrol, but neither of them spoke about it. Strongarm had just said that Sideswipe had gotten on her nerves, and she didn’t know what excuse Sideswipe used for this particular blowout.

Blowout. Blow. Strongarm groaned as she realized just what she had thought. She still couldn’t figure out just what had come over her. Sideswipe was probably genuine in trying to tell her something. But Strongarm was very well aware that good intentions were not the same as doing good, and she very much doubted that Sideswipe had anything real good to add to the situation that she was in.

It was now over two weeks. Now her situation felt even more real. It felt like it was now over fifty percent chance that she was carrying, that the looming possibility that had hounded her for so long was now probable.

Back home, back on Cybertron, this would be easily dealt with. There were clinics to deal with the accidents that happened. Strongarm had never needed their services, but she knew of a couple of fellow trainees that had gone there. In fact, there was no need for a test, just an operation that simply cleared the gestation chamber. If there happened to be a protoform in there, it got flushed out in the process, not even perceptively visible to anyone except those who knew what to look for, a tiny grain of opaque matter.

That option was not available to Strongarm. Cybertron was far away, and she had neither the ship nor the spacebridge to get there. Drift did have a ship, but it wasn’t like she could just ask him for it. There would be questions. And Drift didn’t look like the one who would approve of dealing with problems that way.

Finally the trees of the forest grew more and more sparse. She knew where she was. She had asked Bumblebee for some time to train off-site, and once she told him where she was going, he had permitted it. It was the quarry. Where they had first seen Optimus Prime since coming to Earth.

And there they were, the ruined and abandoned cars that Strongarm had recalled being there. She pushed one off the edge of the quarry, and then let herself slide down to the bottom. She propped the car up against the wall of the deep chasm, made sure that it was stable, and then started punching.

She could have done this in the scrapyard. She had previously done this there. But now there was far more fervor in her movements, far more strength being put into her punches and kicks. She felt the strain in her body as she didn’t let up. Fights were generally supposed to last only seconds unless it was for sport, and Strongarm was not trained for sports. She felt the burn of the heating up energon flowing through her body, the strain of the pistons in her joints, the dampers trying their hardest to make sure that Strongarm wouldn’t be too gravely injured.

Strongarm didn’t care. She just pushed further. The small car dented under her onslaught, the body warping from the impacts and chips of metal and glass flew off, either landing on the ground by her feet or bouncing harmlessly off her.

Bumblebee would tell her to stop at this moment. Drift would look disapprovingly at her actions. Sideswipe would be calling her crazy. Russel would find this cool, Denny Clay would be worried about the nearby treasures that he doted upon. Grimlock would offer a real target, but he wouldn’t push her too hard, and get her to slow down.

But it was just her now. Just she, the open pit quarry, and the car that she had chosen for this.

She knew that she shouldn’t overdo it. That she should take a break. If she pushed herself too far she wouldn’t be able to do this tomorrow. And perhaps it was better if she did this every day instead of just today. Consistent workout, consistent stress on her body. Because that sounded logical. If the body was under constant stress instead of it being just one-time happening, then it could perhaps react, conserve energy, make sure that Strongarm survives whatever that was pushing her to the edge. Surviving with no hanger-ons. Not even those that might be growing in her gestation chamber.

She didn’t want this. She didn’t need it. She wanted her body back. She wanted her agency back. She didn’t want to become a statistic in some prevention class. _It could happen to you!_ A cautionary tale told to everyone else that one-time frag could mean getting sparked up, even in a semi-hostile environment.

Strongarm did a punch, and she felt something give in her elbow. The sharp sting of pain made her yell and she quickly pulled her arm back to herself, cradling it carefully. She vented heavily, the realization that she had pushed too hard coming to her as she felt the rest of her body aching.

The innocent car was barely recognizable. Strongarm pushed it down so that it was the right side up. The wheels were out of alignment, the front of it tipped down far enough to touch the ground in front of it, and it was leaking oil.

Hopefully no one had been hoping to fix the damn thing before she got her hands on it. Strongarm walked few steps away from the car and the leaking oil, sitting down with her back up against the chasm wall as she held onto her injured hand. She focused on evening out her venting, listening to the oil dripping and metal settling, the birds singing intermittently. It was beautiful in that alien way. It was so unlike Cybertron, but Strongarm had read about Earth, how it was, how the humans were. And despite that it was nothing like she had expected when she actually arrived there.

And now there was another unexpected thing happening. Her good hand rubbed at her injured elbow, then left it and she laid the flat palm of it on top of her midsection. She didn’t know if she would be one of those who would show when carrying, but she very much doubted that. The more heavyset Cybertronians rarely showed any indication of carrying, even up to when the emergence started. And it was most likely that she was one of them.

But even though she would never show it, it didn’t mean that she should be hiding it, and if emergence happened, it was better to have everyone ready.

But what about after it? Strongarm tried to think about it, but nothing came. She saw no vision of herself holding a sparkling, nor she could imagine how it would even look like. She certaily had the ability, but it was like something just stopped her. She had never thought about having sparklings, and it looked like that it wasn’t changing. She wanted to be a police officer. She wanted to uphold the law. She wanted to be herself. She was ready to take on the responsibilities of being an officer and uphold the law, to make sure that the wrongdoers faced justice for their crimes.

Then why didn’t she feel like she could take on this new responsibility?

The dull throb in her elbow had subsited to barely perceptible feeling, though she knew that if she pushed it the pain would be back with vengeance. So she carefully stood up and took the long way out of the quarry.

She wasn’t thinking as she walked through the forest. She wasn’t focused on her environment either so she ended up stumbling over a treeroot. Any other day she would have quickly recovered her balance, gotten her legs under her the right way and it would be just like any other times where she had a minor misstep.

But now her body was aching and her mind was fuzzy. She reflexively put her hands before her as she fell, and as the full weight of her upper body was equally distributed through her two hands, the injured elbow buckled under the weight, a sharp pain made her cry out as she fell down completely.

She laid there stunned in silence for a few seconds. There was no thinking involved, just pain. But not just the pain in her elbow. Strongarm curled up and cried. It wasn’t dignified crying, it was a loud and ugly cry of pain and despair. It was more like screaming than crying. With every loud sob she shook, her emotions overtaking her and she didn’t even manage to think. It was just the crying, her low screams as she realized that there was no control. Not over her situation, not over her emotions, and not even her body. She had lost every right to have that control.

Time passed, and soon the cries became low sobs, and then she just laid there, motionless. The pain had gone away long time ago, but everything else seemed to remain. Even before she could put together any coherent thought, she got up on her feet and walked slowly towards the scrapyard, knowing that she would be able to collect herself properly before she reached it.


	7. +17 days overdue, 22 days until fertile

Strongarm was nursing her bad arm. Yesterday Steeljaw had reared his head and they had gotten into a fight. Thankfully no major injuries, but the elbow had been hit. Fixit had given her a proper checkup, and now Strongarm was on rest duty. No physical activities.

It felt unfair. Bumblebee had been more of Steeljaw’s target than she had. But then again he hadn’t had a day-old injury holding him back. So now Strongarm was in one of the more isolated corners of the scrapyard.

Bumblebee suspected something was up. He had even asked her. Her answer had been that it was something that wasn't worth prying into, and if it really was an issue, she would tell him.

If this continued, then yes, she would have to tell him what was going on. But not now. Maybe after the cycle had been completely skipped. Strongarm quickly did the math, realizing that it was now over three weeks since she and Sideswipe had fragged.

Three weeks were nothing. Most people didn’t notice three weeks passing, much less thinking they had been sparked up in that timeframe. It was as Sideswipe had said, she wouldn’t have noticed if she weren’t so bureaucratic about everything in her life.

Strongarm heard footfalls approaching. Heavy enough to be Cybertronian, but not as heavy as Grimlock’s. She looked up, seeing a flash of red between the shelves, and then Sideswipe appeared around the corner of one.

“Hey Strongarm.” Sideswipe said. “I’m sorry about the other day.”

Strongarm looked at him, and then nodded minutely. Before, she would joke about that he almost sounded sincere, but she was not in the mood for any joking or pushing buttons.

“I overreacted.” Strongarm sighed. “I wasn’t in the right mindset.”

Sideswipe opened his mouth, smiling a bit, but then the smile disappeared and he closed his mouth. Whatever he had been about to say, he had apparently had second thoughts. Then he shifted his weight slightly, first towards the base and then back towards her.

“Can I join you?” Sideswipe asked. “I know that I screwed up, no matter what kind of mindset you were in. But it looks like you need the company.”

“Feel free.” Strongarm said before she could stop herself, running more on automatic than anything else. She didn’t really want him to join, but once he came over to her and sat down next to her, not close enough to touch, she realized that she felt a slight relief. Maybe she did need the company.

“So, I take it you’re still waiting?” Sideswipe asked.

Strongarm saw that his face was turned to her. But she didn’t look at him. She just drew her knees close to her chest, wrapping her good arm around them while her weak arm rested on top of some of Denny’s scrap.

“If it matters, I still believe you’re just late.” Sideswipe said.

“Your _experience _telling you that?” Strongarm was too tired to put any good bites into those words. But her disbelief was still apparent.__

__“If I say yes are we going to have a repeat of last time and not talk to each other for a week?” Sideswipe asked back, the barb in the words clear to Strongarm._ _

__Strongarm just took a deep vent, then shook her head. “No. I was just being stupid.” Then she looked up as she recalled certain something Sideswipe had said a while ago. “In fact that time it was the middle of my predicted fertility cycle. So maybe it has some good algorithms in it.”_ _

__“Nope.” Sideswipe shook his head. “So, I told you that I was planned, right?”_ _

__Strongarm waited for him to continue, then realized he had actually asked the question instead of having it be a lead up for further explanation. She looked at him, then nodded._ _

__“My creators wanted twins.” Sideswipe continued. “So they made sure that they would get what they wanted.”_ _

__“Twins?” Strongarm asked, recalling what she knew about twins in Cybertronian biology. “Twins are not planned, there are plenty of issues that put them at risk, like twinned sparks, duo-bots, duo-changers, split alt-modes -”_ _

__“I know.” Sideswipe said. “And that’s why they planned it. I didn’t know until later, but me and my brother were not typical twins. Apparently to avoid the whole shared spark or shared body, all you have to do is to make sure you don’t have the same carrier.”_ _

__“How does that even work?” Strongarm asked. She knew that there was a proper answer to it, but she couldn’t grasp it at the moment._ _

__“So what happened is that my creators made sure their cycles synced up together, then sought help from a fertility clinic. They basically knocked each other up. At the same time. My brother is the lucky one. He got to call his carrier carrier. I didn’t realize that the one whom I called sire was actually my carrier until few years ago.” Sideswipe said. “Apparently there is some truth in the old saying that sparklings instinctively know who their carrier is.”_ _

__“So they just pretended that you were twins?” Strongarm asked._ _

__“Yes.” Sideswipe nodded. “Bragging rights I guess. My sire, my carrier that is, could hide being sparked up. But apparently I emerged a couple of days before my brother. So my other creator had to be induced, alone, to keep up the appearances.”_ _

__Strongarm listened on. She had never heard Sideswipe talk about his family, or even mention them. She hadn’t known he had a brother until a few days ago. She had even thought he was just harvested, like her._ _

__“Were there any more siblings?” Strongarm asked._ _

__“No, just me and my brother.” Sideswipe said. “He was the one who always obeyed our creators, while I always found new and exciting ways to disappoint them. They got so mad that we weren’t the perfect twins that they had envisioned. I was a terrible sparkling, a terrible kid, and when I was a teen I just took off. I bet they had a week-long party when they realized I wasn’t coming back.”_ _

__“Come on, no creator would celebrate their kid leaving without saying anything.” Strongarm said. “Did they get in touch with you later?”_ _

__“No, that was the last I ever saw of them.” Sideswipe said. “In fact, learning that I wasn’t a true twin was the last thing we spoke about. That the one I had called sire was in fact my carrier. In fact, it was a relief to learn that. They were so constantly disappointed with me not being the twin they wanted, that knowing I wasn’t actually a twin helped me to finally move out.”_ _

__Neither of them spoke for a while. Strongarm was mulling this new development over while Sideswipe was seemingly content with just staying silent and looking at the clouds. There was something that sounded wrong with his story, but she couldn’t figure out what. She just laid down, looking directly at the sky, at the clouds drifting far above._ _

__Then she couldn’t stay silent much longer. “Sideswipe,” She said. “I know that you’re probably right about me just being late or skipping a cycle, but what if I did have a sparkling? What then?”_ _

__“I already told you.” Sideswipe sighed. “I would make a terrible caretaker. I was a terrible sparkling, and I would just ruin any possible sparklings as well.”_ _

__“Well, maybe you just need to mature just a bit more.” Strongarm said, then vented. “I don’t think I’m ready either. Whenever I try to picture myself taking care of a sparkling, nothing happens, nothing comes up. Like it’s a concept, but I can’t apply it to myself?”_ _

__“Want to steal Drift’s ship and get to Cybertron?” Sideswipe asked. “Get to a clinic or go to some adoption agency?”_ _

__Strongarm couldn’t help but to laugh. She found herself smiling as well. However he had done it, Sideswipe had gotten her to relax a bit._ _

__“Maybe we should try asking first.” Strongarm said._ _

__“Not now though.” Sideswipe said. “I may have glued his swords into the scabbards.”_ _

__“Don’t tell me that you came to me just to avoid Drift.” Strongarm smiled, and Sideswipe looked away from her in return, smiling as well, and then both of them laughed._ _


	8. +20 days overdue, 19 days until fertile

It was raining, a massive downpour. The road to the scrap yard was treacherous in this weather, lacking proper maintenance. Denny wasn't afraid or stressed, he had been through worse weather. For Strongarm and the other cybertronians it was different. Inclement weather happened on Cybertron, but not heavy rainfall such as this.

Strongarm didn't care about the weather. She had other things on her mind. She had just discovered thin film of dried fluids on her, high up between her legs, a small point of irritation made so that those suffering would be encouraged to clean themselves to be rid of it.

It had finally happened. The natural cycle had finally come. It was a bit late, but it had come nonetheless. She wasn't carrying.

Strongarm laid out flat in the rain, letting it soak her, wash away the irritation while bringing its own in the form of dirt and small particulates. She would need a proper wash after this, but she was willing to wait for the rain to let up before going.

She wasn’t carrying. It was a big relief for her. But right now, she was just laying down, her optics closed so that the raindrops would not fall into them. She was willing to tolerate the irritation everywhere else as long as the evidence of her previous stress and paranoia was washing away.

But the thought kept gnawing at her. She wasn’t carrying. But did that mean that she had been carrying? That there had been a small clump of protoform slowly growing but it was now washing away in the rain, dead and going to decompose, forgotten on an alien world.

And if she had been carrying, why did it not happen? Was it the environment, the most common reason for silent miscarriages? Or was it when she had pushed herself in order to achieve that result, beating down a car in the quarry without any regard for her own body, and with the hostile intent towards the hypothetical clump of material.

Had that really been the right decision? Strongarm wondered. Maybe she should have told Bumblebee about this, or Drift. Maybe either one of them would have understood her predicament. Maybe they had a different solution to her problem.

But now, it was over. Her cycle was hopefully corrected. She lifted up her arm and brought up the app, and hit the button she had wanted to hit for twenty days.

“32 days until flush, 9 days until fertile.” The display showed. It had ignored the longer cycle in its calculations, giving her the regular length to anticipate.

“So it finally happened?” She heard behind her. She arched her head back, seeing Sideswipe standing in the rain, his arms crossed but his stance showed more discomfort from the rain rather than hostile emotions.

“Yeah.” Strongarm rolled over so she would stand up facing him. However she found out it covered her in sloppy mud both front and back. “I was going to tell you.”

“I know.” Sideswipe said. “What’s with staying out in the rain? I thought mudbaths were only good for organics.”

“Ugh please Sideswipe.” Strongarm shook her right arm, trying to fling some mud off it. “I didn’t realize I would be just this covered, but I just needed -” She couldn’t find a good end to that sentence. What was it that she needed from this? She could have had the same result from taking a hose and put it on full blast on herself and be finished with it in minutes.

“I understand.” Sideswipe said. “You’re feeling better, right?” He asked.

Strongarm looked aside for a second, trying to gather her thoughts. Then she nodded. The fact that she had to gather her thoughts on this was worrying for her, but she knew logically that this was better. That she would feel better like this than if she had been carrying. And she would most likely feel better in the next two weeks than waiting for a skipped cycle, or a skipped cycle that would never come.

“Come on, Bumblebee found one of those cop movies he watched when he was here last time.” Sideswipe smiled. “I know you love seeing him nerd out over that stuff.”

“Frag!” Strongarm shook her head. “Those old movies are horrendous, no regard for the proper procedure, and the plot is worse! I mean, the last one had werewolves? How?!”

“Want to watch?” Sideswipe grinned.

“I’m going to wash the mud off first.” Strongarm walked towards the washing station Denny used for his scrap. “Fill me in when I get back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this fic! I felt like I needed to write this particular story, and I hope you've enjoyed!


End file.
